Iain Banks Poetry Collection Set for Release February 2015

Little, Brown announced that they will release a collection of poetry by the late Iain Banks in February 2015.

The poems will feature work from science fiction writer Ken MacLeod, a childhood friend of Banks. MacLeod is also editing the book.

Banks died last June at the age of 59 after his battle with bladder cancer.

In his final interview, he said the poems were "a desperate urge to get things that were supposed to be long-term projects out the way."

Iain Banks was born in Fife in 1954, and was educated at Stirling University, where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology.

Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984.

His first science fiction novel, Consider Phlebas, was published in 1987. He has continued to write both mainstream fiction (as Iain Banks) and science fiction (as Iain M. Banks).

He is now acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation: The Guardian has called him "the standard by which the rest of SF is judged". William Gibson, the New York Times-bestselling author of Spook Country describes Banks as a "phenomenon".